So I researched a bit using Google and came up with one interesting Thread with one particularly interesting post. It would appear that little documented research has been conducted on this topic. I suspect the military has done some research, but their research is probably done with non-expanding bullets, which has little application for the hunting of game animals.
Here's a link to the article:
Has there ever been studys done on twist rate vrs bullet terminal damage ??? - The Firing Line Forums
And here's the Post within the article that seems to have the greatest potential for expressing some valid information, based on the references cited in the post, the number of posts from this forum member, and the quality of the presentation of the information:
June 24, 2010, 01:41 PM Post #14
Scorch
Senior Member
Join Date: February 13, 2006
Location: Washington state
Posts: 10,408
There are an awful lot of people's opinions, "thinking", and "reasoning" here, and very little actual data. Very little scientific research has been done on the subject, as far as I know.
As far as non-scientific research, I actually knew and spoke at great length with a man who did quite a bit of testing on this subject back in the 1950s. He was a wildcatter and gunsmith who worked very closely with the Juenke brothers of Saturn Guns fame, as well as PO Ackley, Frank Barnes (who wrote COTW), and other well-known gun gurus, and who mentored Wes Ugalde (of TCU fame). This data was gathered by shooting animals, not paper, and was based on shooting hundreds of animals, not just one or two. IIRC, he experimented with 30-06, 270, 308, 7mm-06, 243 Win, 230 Ackley (80 gr .228" bullet on an -06 case), 22-caliber wildcats, and a few 17 caliber wildcats, using Nosler Partitions and hand-swaged bullets. His experience indicated that a higher rate of twist gave deeper penetration and considerably higher damage than slower rates of twist, but required better built and heavier bullets than factory bullets to really shine. Higher rates of twist gave deeper penetration (which always seems better than less penetration), longer wound channels (which seems better than short wound channels), and a very high percentage of 1-shot kills.
This is consistent with a lot of folk knowledge, including Roy Weatherby's claims of outlandish performance for his rifles (257 Weatherby and 300 Weatherby in particular), PO Ackley's claims of terminal ballistics, Mashburn's cartridge development, and Warren Page's work. It also is supported by the killing abilities of seemingly underpowered rounds that killed out of proportion to their paper credentials, like 22 Savage High Power, 6.5X54mm MS, and 7X57, which had higher rates of twist than needed launching heavier bullets than we would normally use here in the USA.
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